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IBG High-Rise Glass Training

Ipswich Bay Glass Holds Essential High-Rise Glass Training Exercise For Cambridge and Somerville Fire Departments

December 1, 2022

Ipswich Bay Glass, one of the largest commercial façade companies in the Northeast, recently held a high-rise glass training exercise with the Cambridge and Somerville Fire Departments. The need for training arose due to the evolving city scape in both municipalities. As high-rises continue to be built at a scale that has not been seen before, there were concerns on the part of the Fire Departments to understand how to best interact with high-rise glass. Representatives from Ipswich Bay Glass and Captain Patrick Halloran from the Somerville Fire Department coordinated the training session that took place at Northpoint in Cambridge, MA.

“As more of these buildings go up with even bigger profiles, we need to understand how to interact with the glass without injuring ourselves, the people we’re looking to rescue or the pedestrians on the street below,” said Somerville Fire Department Captain Patrick Halloran.
Mockups of structures commonly seen in both cities were provided by IBG at the site. IBG’s Charles Moniz, Director of Sales and Estimating, Mike Ahern, Field Superintendent and Dylan Amore, Safety Supervisor, led the training. The group reviewed the different types of glass façades and best practices for interacting with each one. The firefighters then tested a variety of tools to identify the best ones to safely break, cut and remove the glass panels.

“The opportunity to help train firefighters made perfect sense since safety is our biggest priority at IBG. Working in conjunction with the Fire Departments to develop best practices is essential to high-rise glass safety for citizens and first responders,” said Moniz.
For videos from the training exercise, please visit the IBG YouTube page here.

About Ipswich Bay Glass
Ipswich Bay Glass, founded in 1969, is one of the largest commercial façade companies in the Northeast. Their expansive corporate and manufacturing headquarters in Rowley, Massachusetts is home to their design, engineering, project management, estimating, fabrication, material handling and installation teams. The facility covers several hundred thousand square feet and includes an aluminum glazing systems machining and assembly plant, a rainscreen panel fabrication plant and a full ornamental sheet metal and stainless steel shop. Products include unitized curtainwalls, stick-built curtainwalls, custom and structural glass curtainwalls, composite panels, rainscreen façade, louvers and mechanical screens, skylights, entrances and decorative metals. For additional information, call (978) 948-6644.